As the volume and intensity of information transactions continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store data and applications. One option available to users of information is a storage system. The storage system generally stores, protects, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to access the information whenever necessary.
Because information handling requirements vary between different users or applications, information storage systems may include cache memory to temporarily hold information, which might be more frequently accessed or modified, in order to provide a quicker access path to the information. The cache memory can require special firmware support in order to improve the efficiency of its use. For example the cache memory can use a least most recently used (LMRU) algorithm or a most recently used (MRU) algorithm in order to utilize the cache for the best performance of the storage system. These caching algorithms can improve performance on some repeated read sequences, but are completely ineffective for random read operations or for sequential read operations. Once the information is moved out of the cache memory to a long term storage device, the access time can be much slower.
Thus, a need still remains for a storage system with data management mechanism to improve performance and accessibility of user data. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.